Constellation Swan (Cygnus)

Cygnus, the Swan, is one of the most recognizable constellations in the summer and autumn skies of the Northern Hemisphere. Its bright stars form the striking pattern of the Northern Cross, soaring along the dense band of the Milky Way. At its heart lies Deneb, a luminous blue-white giant star and one of the three points of the famous Summer Triangle. Cygnus is home to breathtaking celestial treasures — from glowing nebulae and rich star fields to one of the first black holes ever discovered, Cygnus X-1. For stargazers, it is a gateway to some of the most spectacular regions of our galaxy.

My story: In one of my earlier stories, I recommended beginning astronomy and astrophotography with a simple binoculars. A great exercise is searching for objects from Messier’s catalog. It teaches you how to navigate the sky and “hop” from star to star until you find the nebula or cluster you are looking for. From there, it’s only a small step to the idea of photographing an entire constellation.

With my beloved Hasselblad 907X & CFV 100C, I set out to capture the constellation of Cygnus (the Swan), which is incredibly rich in deep-sky objects. What I didn’t anticipate was just how demanding the image processing would be—especially the sheer amount of data involved. But the result is truly fascinating: it reveals how many objects can be captured this way, their positions relative to each other, and even hints at their possible interactions.

Take a closer look at the image and see if you can spot some of the nebulae already featured in this collection. You may also notice several other Messier objects that I still plan to photograph in the future.